Unwanteds Stories

blackboards

Alex tossed yet another book into the pile, which contained Platyprots and their Properties, a book about the jungle creatures- which he was a little too nervous to approach quite yet- a guide on how to fix a tube- that would've come in handy at Ishibashi-san, Ito-san, and Sato-san's island- a memoir of-

"STOWE!"

Good grief. Alex rolled his eyes, wincing as yet another bellow rang through the halls.

"STOWE! WHERE ARE YOU? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT ME HANGING LIKE THAT! I-"

For Pete's sake! Alex thought in irritation. He's going to shake the whole mansion! I didn't leave him hanging, I told him distinctly that I couldn't make it!

It was true- Alex had told Samheed that he couldn't help him out in the theatre while they'd been sitting on the lawn- Sam had been scribbling in his notebook at a feverish pace, jotting down whatever new ideas he'd come up with in- oh. Perhaps it hadn't been the best choice to try and talk to Sam while he was writing.

"Stowe!"

Samheed appeared in the door with a shout, marching toward Alex with fury in his already fiery orange eyes. Alex stood up quickly, brushing off Mr. Today's robe. He backed up a pace.

"How could you just ditch me?" Sam exploded. "You were literally my last resort! Lani was busy, and Meghan was teaching Sky how to sing, and Henry and Crow were off doing goodness knows what, and I couldn't exactly ask Simber to-"

"I didn't ditch you!" Alex interrupted, cutting through Samheed's angry ranting.

Sam strode forward. Alex stepped backward. He realized his back was to the bookshelf. For whatever reason, the position set him on edge.

"Really, because, hey! Look at that!" Samheed looked around dramatically, imbibing, as he often did, a little bit of the stage into every movement. "You're not in the theatre right now, are you? No, you're not! You're off in the library, sifting through-"

"I told you I wasn't coming!" Alex shot back.

"When?"

"When you were writing on the lawn!"

"When I was- when I was writing?" Sam swung his hand through the air incredulously. "I'm not LISTENING to you when I'm writing, I have better things to do than-"

"Well that's not my fault, is it?" Alex shouted.

"Yes it is!" Sam retorted wildly.

"How the bulbous bumbleberries is that my fault?" Alex cried, waving his arms exasperatedly.

"Because- I- whatever Stowe!" Sam waved his hands around in frustration, then leaned them on either side of Alex's head, on the shelf. Alex swallowed, absently fiddling with the fringe of Mr. Today's robe.

"I told you I was busy, Sam. It's not my fault you weren't listening."

"What exactly are you so busy with, anyway? It looks like you're just messing around with the books to me- like you could do ANY OTHER DAY."

Though Sam wasn't shouting anymore, he still sounded pretty angry. Alex reminded himself that Sam thought Alex had blown him off- he didn't know why Alex hadn't shown up. Still, it was hard to keep the edge out of his voice as he snapped,

"Like I told you before, I had a crisis."

Sam deflated slightly, still propping himself up against the shelf, still too close to Alex.

"A crisis?"

"Yes. A crisis. And as Head Mage, it is MY responsibility to deal with crises."

"What sort of crisis?"